“It’s been a very helpful process. I now feel much better able to accept the limitations of my illness and not constantly struggle against them. In fact I feel much more comfortable with myself and better grounded. I can envisage a life with ups and downs and physical and mental health and being able to accept fully and with equanimity that I will very likely never fully be well again. So I have achieved what I hoped -with my coach's help and guidance! and that is to stop feeling angry at myself and my illness and to accept myself and my illness, and life as it is.”
“Really useful for putting things in perspective and techniques to best help myself physically and emotionally. Great to be able to talk to someone who has an understanding of what I'm going through and doesn't look at things from a 'Dr' backgrounds - more holistic.”
S (health coach) is a very warm, friendly person who remains entirely non-judgemental. The coaching service is more focused and goal-oriented than traditional counselling, and my coach was not afraid to offer opinions or advice, which I found more helpful that the standard counselling/therapeutic interaction. I enjoyed the flexibility that she offered, as we could meet in locations that suited me, and she even bought me a coffee on a couple of occasions, which was definitely not expected and very sweet of her. I have already told all my close friends about this service, and they were blown away by the fact it was offered free on the NHS. I think it’s an innovative and modern service that is patient-focused and forward thinking, but its success depends completely on the quality of coaches, and mine was perfect. “
“Such a great service and has improved my confidence. J (health coach) has made me feel good about myself and positive changes to my life going forward. J is a wonderful caring person and lovely having someone so friendly to talk to. I will miss not seeing her as she has helped me so much”.
“Coach helped me with being more positive and confident discussing things with doctors and to set achievable goals.”
“Very good, friendly service. Makes me laugh and see life differently. Helped me engage with local residents and enjoy exchanging their stories. Would definitely recommend this service.”
“I've really enjoyed my sessions with my health coach and feel she has helped me address and change my behaviour around some of my symptoms, especially tiredness, which has helped me recover. I think I now have a more positive attitude towards dealing with my physical problems and my coach has helped enormously with that.”
“I had past trauma with relationships which took me too rock bottom which with my ongoing health problems let me with no confidence and all I was getting to point of shutting myself off and away J (health coach) helped me tremendously to see good in myself and not let people walk all over me.”
“My coach has been very helpful, using her extensive knowledge to provide useful information as to what different organisations are available to me, which I have not had before I do think the service like this should be more available to people with health conditions like mine.”
KYOH provide all the key components for the successful implementation of self-management support, including face-to-face health coaching, a comprehensive online coaching platform and all the training and supervision needed to establish a high quality supported self-management service.
Alf Collins, Consultant in Pain Management, describes helping people to get the confidence and capability to self-manage and make shared decisions about their own health and their own health care.
So shared decision-making is really about working with people to develop that sense of resourcefulness in themselves in order to start to develop that capability and that confidence to make decisions about their own health. And also to start making decisions about their own health care. The more information we have (as patients) and the more confident we are in using that information, the more wisely we can start making decisions about our own health and own health care.
